1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer hardware and relates more particularly to a system for efficiently cooling a processor.
2. Description of the Background Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a computing device 100, within which a conventional cooling system 118 for cooling a graphics processing unit (GPU) 116 is incorporated. As shown, computing device 100 includes a housing 101, within which a motherboard 104 resides. Mounted on motherboard 104 are a central processing unit (CPU) 106, a processor cooler 108 for cooling CPU 106, a system fan 110 for removing heat from computing device 100 and one or more peripheral component interface (PCI) cards 112, each interfaced with a slot located in the back part of housing 101. Motherboard 104 further incorporates a graphics card 102 that enables computing device 100 to rapidly process graphics related data for graphics intensive applications such as gaming applications. Graphics card 102 comprises a printed circuit board (PCB) upon which a plurality of circuit components (not shown), such as memory chips and the like, are mounted. In addition, graphics card 100 includes GPU 116, mounted to one face of graphics card 102, for processing graphics related data.
Because the computational requirements of GPU 116 are typically quite substantial, GPU 116 tends to generate a large amount of heat during operation. If the generated heat is not properly dissipated, the performance of GPU 116 typically degrades. For this reason, cooling system 118, which is configured to remove heat from GPU 116, is coupled to GPU 116. Although not shown in FIG. 1, cooling system 118 typically includes a dedicated fan configured to force air through a plurality of air channels disposed along a surface of cooling system 118 that is coupled to GPU 116 (also referred to as the “heat transfer surface area”) and into an outside environment. The air flow through these channels causes the heat generated by GPU 116 to be dissipated into the outside environment.
One drawback to using cooling system 118 is that the size of cooling system 118 is limited by envelope constraints. Specifically, the surface area of graphics card 102 that is allotted to cooling system 118 is limited, and accelerated graphics processor (AGP) chip specifications further restrict cooling system size by curtailing the height of cooling system 118 off of graphics card 102. Size constraints on cooling system 118 limit the size of the heat transfer surface area of cooling system 118 and the size of the dedicated fan, thereby limiting the heat transfer effectiveness of cooling system 118.
Another drawback is that the size of the dedicated fan within cooling system 118 is also limited by envelope constraints, thereby limiting airflow over the heat transfer surface area of cooling system 118 and further inhibiting the heat transfer effectives of cooling system 118.
Yet another drawback of cooling system 118 is that the failure rate of the dedicated fan may be quite high. Since cooling system 118 typically is a component of graphics card 102, failure of the dedicated fan usually necessitates replacing graphics card 102. This requirement not only decreases the reliability of graphics card 102, but also is costly and time consuming.
In addition, during operation the dedicated fan tends to produce a substantial amount of unwanted acoustic noise, which is annoying to users of computing device 100.